Smarting from backlash over quarantine conditions for returning Jamaicans at two St Ann hotels, Prime Minister Andrew Holness and Health Minister Dr Christopher Tufton yesterday apologised for a slew of logistical foul-ups, including rooming delays and substandard meals.
Tufton’s apology, made to reporters in St Ann, came just an hour before Prime Minister Andrew Holness issued one of his own “to every returning citizen who has had to endure less-than-favourable conditions”.
Relatives of quarantined guests blasted the authorities for their management of accommodation and food arrangements days after Holness said at a Jamaica House press conference that “if persons are looking for something to complain about, it will always be found”.
Holness, in a statement from Jamaica House some time after 6 p.m., acknowledged that the difficulties “relate primarily to delays in the admission process at the quarantine facility and the lack of timely provisions of meals”.
Addressing reporters after touring both the Jewel Paradise Cove, where 120 persons are being confined, and the Bahia Principe, which houses 345 others, Tufton told reporters that institutional quarantines were a “big task” that required much manpower.
